Fathernator
by Hezza62
Summary: Nomad is a hackerfreedom fighter in a futuristic hellworld governed by terminators. One day she meets one with a surprising secret, and puts her life in his hands. FINISHED. Very loosely based on the first two movies
1. Chapter 1

Fathernator

AN: This story is based on a dream I had on a tired, Friday night after a junk-food dinner.

It _was _a little freaky at the time, but after dreaming it the idea of a Fathernator seemed pretty funny.

The dream has aspects from movies/shows like Terminator, Junior, D&D, Angel and Matrix.

The stuff at the beginning is pretty gruesome, but then, so was my dream.

That part scared me, but I still didn't wake up.

Part One

1: Introductions

Screaming filled the air. You wouldn't have heard much else at night those days, but it put a chill through the kids all the same. Either someone had broken curfew, or another contract had been put out on someone's or some people's lives. The noise of gunfire suggested the latter. The kids stayed clear until the early hours of morning, when the slaughter would have been finished. If they were caught outside during the night, they would have been punished, along with whoever was being killed.

There wasn't much difference between night and day in the city, the only way they could tell was that the streetlights were turned on. The carnage that greeted them proved that these people had suffered greatly during the night. The corpse of a woman had only recently gone cold; she had bled on the ground for a long time before dying. The terminators had removed the bodies of the one's they'd been sent to kill, so this one must have gotten in the way. It would be up to the people who lived around here to clean up the mess. It was the machines' way of teaching them to behave, or else they'd end up like their friends.

The kids cautiously stepped forward to pay their respects; this woman had probably been innocent of everything but being caught outside with people that were to be terminated. They weren't really all children, but according to Machine law anyone under 20 was considered a child, an Innocent until caught breaking the rules. They could be punished, but they could not be terminated. It was one of the ways the machines ensured that their population of slaves continued to exist and be obedient.

The 'kids' noticed a girl standing by one of the buildings, looking at a dog that had been caught in the crossfire. It still whimpered, but when she put a hand out to comfort it, it snapped at her, alternating between whines of pain and snarls. Her expression appeared to harden. The animals had been forced to become vicious in order to survive in these hard times. The only things they feared were the machines. They were no longer man's best friends; man was on his own. Even the dogs' owners had to be wary of them. All they were good for was as attack dogs now.

The girl pitied the dog, she looked about 18, and therefore she had been around when they were kinder creatures. She could do nothing for it, even if it would let her, so she quickly pulled the dog's muzzle up, grabbed a knife from her boot and ended it's suffering.

One of the 'kids' walked towards her, a boy that was a little older than her. He'd noticed her breaking curfew before, though she'd never approached them. If she'd wanted, she'd have been welcome to join them, but she seemed like a loner. The killing of the dog had shown him that she was dangerous, but compassionate, and he was curious.

She looked up and stood, pulling out a cloth and cleaning her knife as he approached. She was deliberately presenting the appearance of being dangerous. She was involved in dangerous activities, and she hadn't joined the kids for fear of putting them in danger also. She was willing to risk her own life, but not theirs. If this boy wasn't scared off by her behaviour, it would be his own problem, but most people stayed away from her if they saw her.

"What's your name?" he asked casually, which, considering the surroundings, amused her.

"Why would I tell you?" she replied, her manner making her seem older than she was. She took in his face, which seemed honest, but that didn't count for anything those days. He wore jeans and a tattered brown jacket and sneakers, typical of a street kid.

"Because I asked nicely." He said. She was a stark contrast to his own appearance. Where he was blonde, she was dark, her hair tied back in a neat plait. She wore dark jeans, a black top and a leather jacket. Must have been an heirloom; they didn't make leather for just anybody anymore. In the dark, she would have almost been invisible. She wore sturdy, low heeled, sensible boots, also black. It was her trademark colour.

She smiled wryly. This boy was confident. "Nomad." She said, using her street name. A lot of 'kids' didn't have real names; they usually dropped them on the street. This name was safe for him to know.

"Nomad? Why that name?" He asked.

"Because I'm never in one place for long." She replied, and as she said it, she returned her knife to her boot and walked away.

"Wait, don't you want to know my name?" he called after her.

"Not really." She said, without looking back.

"Ooh, crashed and burned on that one, Blaize." His best friend teased as he returned to the group, who were now a safe distance away from the carnage being cleaned up by neighbours. He'd seen the girl walk away from his friend.

"Shut up Grunge." Blaize swung at his friend good-naturedly. Perhaps their behaviour may have seemed inappropriate considering what they'd recently seen, but it was a common occurrence. The kids had learned to get over it quickly, there was no point dwelling on the dead for long.

" I don't know why you bothered to flirt with that one. You know that Becca likes you." Grunge said.

"I think she only likes you cos you're the leader." Said another member of the group, a short brown haired girl.

"Be quiet Mouse." Her older, dark-haired brother told her. "You weren't even supposed to be here tonight."

"She had to come sometime, Grunge. Better with us than trying to see what it's like at night on her own." Blaize defended her.

The three 'kids' belonged to a small street gang called the Dead Kids Living, or DKL, made up of orphans. Most gangs were just involved in petty crimes, stealing food and valuables, and on the outside, that's what this gang was too. Though there wasn't much a bunch of kids could do about the machines, when they could screw things up for their oppressors, they did, always evading capture, knowing their streets as well as any terminator.

Their name came from an institution for orphans, where the machines raised them to be obedient citizens. Anyone who went in there usually came out dead inside, so they were known as Dead Kids. The gang members had all evaded going to the Dead Home, so they called themselves the Dead Kids Living.

The kids returned to their hideout, the basement of an abandoned warehouse, to share the news of the night.

2: Discovery

That evening Grunge, who was a skilled hacker, learned of a contract out on some storeowners who'd evaded questioning by the authorities, and were suspected to be assisting in rebel activities. They'd fed the DKL's before, but they must have been involved in something more serious to have a contract on them. Blaize, Grunge, Becca and two others went to their homes to warn them. As no terminations occurred before curfew they still had some time.

No one was home, so as the streetlights flickered, warning that curfew was near, they ran to the stores. They broke in quietly, figuring the owners wouldn't care about the damage as long as their lives were saved. They were in a large clothing store. A Patroller, which was a floating machine with cameras and an onboard computer with complete records of citizens, was outside the store. Contracts could be made if their cameras observed criminal behaviour, so their presence was a good deterrent. They also had modems, so they could alert terminators of the presence of fugitives. The kids had to avoid being seen, as it was now after curfew.

The terminators had not yet arrived, and the kids snuck behind rows of clothing. Blaize was at the rear, making sure nothing could sneak up on his group. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He whirled around to see Nomad.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered.

"What are you doing here?" He replied, suspicious. Becca, a tall blonde girl, stared at her with immediate dislike, and the others were also suspicious.

"Warning the owners about a contract, and they're gone now." She said, "Terminators are coming so you have to leave now!" She warned them. They were surprised that she also knew about the contract, and wondered why she cared. Blaize was about to ask just that when a clothing rack was thrown aside to reveal a terminator! Human on the outside, machine on the inside, they were ruthless killers. They recognised it by the Machine-issue gun in his hands and grey uniform.

AN: In my dream this terminator looked like the Arnold Schwarzenegger version

"Go." Nomad yelled, and the others didn't need to be told twice. They got to a vent where they could get out when Blaize looked back to see Nomad fending off the Terminator. She had knocked the gun out of its hands with a metal pole and was striking him with it. She must have been strong, because it flinched every time she hit it or it blocked. Blaize was about to rush back to help when she pulled a small canister from her belt and threw it at the Terminator's feet. She then jumped up, kicked off its face with both feet, and back flipped away from it. It kicked the canister away before it made a small explosion with lots of smoke. Grunge pulled Blaize back through the vent.

"Come on, she's crazy. You've got people to take care of, Blaize!"

Nomad had expected one of its legs to be immobilised by the blast, so she was shocked when she turned to see it right behind her. She was cornered.

"Well, aren't you gonna shoot me!" She yelled defiantly.

"Innocents are not terminated." It replied calmly. She had expected to be grabbed and cuffed by now, but she used his hesitation to duck past him, run upstairs and throw herself through a window to the outside, using her jacket to shield her face and hands. She got away, but she was troubled. Why didn't it take her when it had the chance? It should have grabbed her. Maybe it was malfunctioning. Terminators had to have a small level of free will in order to make decisions on the job; maybe this one was given too much.

She noted the direction the kids had gone, and then intrigued, she waited around in hiding for the reappearance of the terminator. Upon finding the owners of the store to be absent, it returned outside, reported to the Patroller, then left, its job considered finished for the evening.

Nomad followed it, hoping if it was a malfunction that she could figure out how to use it on other terminators somehow.

She followed it to an underground club, where free creatures gambled on fights. In the last decade, life on other planets had been confirmed, and a race of creatures that looked like goblins had made an alliance with the Machines. They were extremely intelligent, and due to them the Machines had become more advanced, and had taken hold over the human population of the planet. The creatures only had three fingers, so they found mechanics difficult. Humans were used to create their machinery, and some had been sent to the creature's home planet as slaves.

The Terminators fought here to keep relations between Machines and 'Goblins' going well, and also to test out their offensive capabilities against creatures the Goblins brought with them. Their little free will allowed them to enjoy fighting.

There were some slave attendants for the Goblins, so Nomad snuck in and tried to remain inconspicuous. No free human in his or her right mind would go in there anyway, so she felt safe, as long as her particular terminator didn't notice her. The slaves didn't wear uniforms or anything, so as long as she didn't act suspiciously, the Goblins would assume she was someone else's slave. She'd been here before, to steal gadgets from the Goblins, figure out how they worked, and use them to her advantage.

She pick-pocketed another bag while she was there, She pulled out a fairly new creation, and recognised it for the x-ray goggles she'd been hearing for about for the past few weeks. In a dark corner she modified them to suit her eyes, then positioned herself inconspicuously to watch the ring, where the Terminator was bound to emerge.

She had defeated a Terminator once before, she'd shut it down and studied it's anatomy, and was hoping to find out if maybe her terminator's problem was to do with it's structure, or faulty wires. It wasn't long before hers emerged, it's face stern. "Well hello Stony." She whispered to herself, giving it a nickname to refer to it by. Before looking through the goggles she watched it's fighting style a little while. It was certainly fast and strong enough to have caught her, so it must have decided not to catch her. This was puzzling.

AN: Ok, it's going to get really weird now. (If it wasn't weird before.) 'Junior' reference coming up.

Nomad looked trough the goggles at Stony. His cerebral structure looked fairly normal. She lowered the goggles and gaped. It had another structure in its abdominal region, not made of metal, but bone. She adjusted the goggles and saw a small face. Nomad almost fainted with the shock. What was the Machines/Goblins experimenting with now? Terminator pregnancy? As far as she knew terminators had no gender, and she'd only ever seen them disguised as males. She knew artificial life was possible, but the baby didn't look artificial. It was human. Maybe it was transplanted into the terminator?

Whatever the reasons, Nomad had to find out what was going on. Now she had two mysteries to solve. In all her hacking into the Machine's systems she'd never come across any mention of anything like this! After the fight she followed the terminator to the 'change rooms', where terminators would recharge, keep their weapons and get back into uniforms. She peeked from behind a locker and watched as Stony removed his shirt, and saw the slight bulge in his abdomen.

It was her turn to be surprised when she felt a hand on her shoulder; she whirled around to see Blaize. She'd been so intent on following the Terminator without being noticed by it she'd missed being followed herself. He tugged on her arm, trying to get her to get out of there, but Nomad saw over his shoulder that they'd been caught.

"What are you doing there?" Another terminator demanded. Stony appeared back in uniform behind Nomad, and her heart sank. She doubted she could take on two terminators at once.

"I told them to be there." Stony said unexpectedly. The other terminator looked sceptical. "I have a task for them, they belong to ." He said, naming one of the influential Goblins that frequented the club.

The other terminator nodded and left. Blaize and Nomad turned back in surprise. He'd let them go again! Nomad looked questioningly at Stony as Blaize tugged on her arm again, not liking the situation.

"I will keep your secret if you keep mine." The terminator said. "I won't report your presence at last night's incident if you tell no one about my 'guest'." Blaize was confused, as he hadn't seen the pregnancy.

Nomad was also confused. Who could they tell if they were imprisoned? He must have meant other machines, but why wouldn't they know about it unless they weren't the ones that put it there? This terminator was definitely showing a lot of free will.

"Why didn't you catch me last night? I know you could have." Nomad asked, feeling a little braver.

Stony smiled wryly. "My guest seems to have a humanising effect on my mind. I fleetingly wondered if it would look like you when it grew up, and I admired your courage, so I let you go."

Blaize frowned. Admiration was a human trait. And they owed him. He definitely wasn't a standard terminator.

"What guest?" asked Blaize, his curiosity overcoming his cautiousness. The terminator's expression hardened again.

"Not here." He said. "If you want your questions answered meet me where we first met, tonight before curfew. It's abandoned now. The name I give to humans is Henry; you can call me that. Go now."

They didn't argue, and Blaize was eager to pull Nomad out of the place.

3: Questions

When they were a safe distance from the club Nomad pulled away from his grip. "Why did you follow me?" she demanded.

"Why did you follow him?" Blaize countered.

"My business is my business.' She said, her loner tendencies becoming dominant again. She didn't want to drag him into anything, even if he _was_ stupid enough to follow her. 'Why were you at the store last night?"

"The same reason as you. We found out about the contract too, and are friends with the owners." It was on the tip of his tongue to ask why she cared about the owners, but figured he'd just make her angry again. He was still hoping to be friends, despite her apparent dislike of him. She was a good fighter and would be useful to his gang.

"Look," he said. "I think I somehow got on your bad side yesterday, so let me apologise and start again. I'm Blaize, of the DKL's."

Nomad sighed, deciding to drop the defensiveness. "It's not that I disliked you or anything you did. I prefer to be on my own. I don't take orders, and I don't usually advertise what I'm thinking. I don't simply meet people and then trust them. It's safer that way, both for me and those around me. You probably noticed that I'm dangerous, and am frequently involved in dangerous situations."

"I'm not afraid." Blaize answered simply.

She studied his face for a moment. "Come with me then. I'll answer your questions in a safe place."

"The store owners had received information to do with the Machines, and they sold it to me." Nomad explained to Blaize at her hideout. "I think they sold it to someone else and got caught doing it. I'd hacked into the Patroller's system and found out about the contract. I might be a loner but I'm still loyal to those who help me. I owed it to the owners to help them. Besides, if I can avert a slaughter, I do it anyway. It shouldn't have cost me anything to warn them, but then I got held up telling you guys to get away." She finished.

"So why did you follow that terminator?" Blaize asked.

"He had a chance to catch me at the store, but he didn't take it. He let me go, like he did this morning at the club. I was curious. I wanted to find out why, see if I could use it to my advantage. I'm not afraid of taking risks. So why did you follow me?" she asked.

"Mostly to find out why you would help us, and do something like follow a terminator. You make me curious too. Besides, I saw how you handled the terminator and thought you'd be useful to us."

"Fair enough." Nomad said. " Are you curious enough to come to the store this evening? If he didn't turn us in before, he's not likely to tonight. He's not a normal terminator."

He nodded. "I'll trust your judgement, but that doesn't mean I'll trust a terminator."

"Understandable. Just wait till you see what he's hiding." Nomad said mysteriously.

Henry was waiting for them. He led them inside, using his modem and enhanced vision to enure that no one was able to see them.

"So what's this about a guest? Why'd you help us?" Blaize asked, standing a safe distance away from Henry.

"He's pregnant." Nomad stated matter of-factly. Blaize looked at her as though she was crazy or joking.

"It's true, if pregnant is the right word for it." Henry said, pulling up his shirt to show the bulge. Nomad handed Blaize the x-ray goggles.

"How?" Nomad asked.

"Even I don't know. One day I just started feeling."

"Feeling what?" asked Blaize.

"Just feeling, which is impossible for a Terminator. I felt emotion, I felt pain. Then I felt something inside me. Secretly, I found out what it was. I'd have reported something like this, gotten rid of it and gotten back to being a terminator, but I felt I had to protect her, so I kept her a secret. It's had a humanising effect on me ever since I got her; I let you go, I've felt, I've kept secrets. She's given me complete free will." Henry touched his stomach thoughtfully, a strange emotion to see on a killing machine.

"You've still got a metal skeleton, but your power source has changed in structure. It looks like a human heart, only still mechanical." Blaize observed.

"I told you I was changing." Henry said. " It's most likely so that I can support the child."

"No Terminator's ever turned human before." Said Nomad. "The Goblins probably would have experimented on you both and dismantled you if they'd learned about this."

"Which is why I've decided to ally myself with you." Henry said. "I could not have kept this hidden for too much longer, and if you're becoming one of them, join them." Again, he sounded so human it put a chill down Nomad's back.

"But I can't take you back with us." Blaize said.

"Why? Without my uniform, your group could accept me. Granted, being male and pregnant would be a shock, l will keep it discreet."

"You're an adult. There aren't any non-Innocents in my group. Besides, I can't completely trust a terminator, even a weird one." Blaize pointed out.

"And what about your modem?" Said Nomad. "It can be tracked. If you go missing and they track you to a place you shouldn't be, it would be disastrous."

Henry turned around and lifted some of his hair at the back, revealing a scar. "I've removed it before, I'll do it again for good if I have to. Besides, you have allies that are adults don't you? I'm a fugitive, they'd believe that. I won't stay with your group specifically, just be on your side. As you pointed out, I'm a terminator, and so I have no one to turn to."

"For her sake," Nomad gestured towards the baby, "I'll help you in any way I can. There's no way you could have faked her, and it wouldn't be fair to let a child suffer because I'm suspicious of the one who carries her."

"I'm grateful." Henry said.

"I'll do what I can." Blaize sighed, trusting Nomad's judgement as he said he would. "A group of us are leaving the city soon anyway. It's getting too dangerous here for the younger ones, so we're going to escort them out."

"I'll help you." Henry said. "I'm still partly terminator, I'm not defenceless, I can escort you." Nomad nodded, remembering his fighting in the ring. "Besides, I also need to leave the city. Once out, I can leave you alone, you won't have to hear from me again."

"I'm really convinced you're turning human." Nomad smiled a little. "No Terminator I've seen has ever held a conversation for this long." She hadn't held a conversation for this long for a while either, the consequence of a loner's life. She trusted her instincts, which weren't telling her to be afraid. "By the way," she said to Blaize, "Where were you going to take the kids?"

"Not sure, really, just out of the city." Blaize answered.

"I know a place they can stay." She said.

4: Journey

Nomad had spent some of her early childhood on a farm in the country. The Machines and Goblins left the country people alone, because they needed them to keep the slaves alive with their produce. Usually humans that had shown good behaviour or had helped the Machines in some way were sent to work on farms, where the daylight could still be seen during the day.

Nomad, being a frequent traveller, was used to it, but DKL's and terminator alike were amazed at the sun's light and warmth. Normally, Henry wouldn't have cared, but the more the baby grew, the more human he became, physically and emotionally. Nomad fleetingly wondered if he'd turn female.

Grunge and Becca were suspicious of both her and Henry, who they'd disguised to avoid questions. Blaize had the final word and they were accepted. The rest of the DKL's were just happy to leave the city.

"We meet this girl one day and suddenly we completely trust her the next." Grumbled Becca, who immediately grew defensive whenever Nomad was around. She was walking near the rear with Grunge and Mouse.

"I don't trust her." Said Grunge. "But I trust Blaize, he trusts her, and he _is _the leader."

"Personally I think he's trusting his hormones and not his brain." Becca said bitterly.

Nomad led them to a farm. "I used to live here." She said simply. "And I hope you understand," she said to the younger ones. "That no one can know that you were here, or what you might see." They nodded wondering what they had to be so secretive about.

Nomad approached the farm's main barn on her own, cautioning the others to stay back. She'd told Blaize what to expect, but the others were surprised when they saw the muzzles of guns poke through upstairs windows.

"Identify yourselves."

"Nomad, I lived here 16 years ago, and helped you build your defences one year ago. I practically own this place." She yelled haughtily. "I request that these Innocents and fugitives be allowed in."

A few moments later a man with a gun exited the barn. He spoke quietly to her for a minute, out of hearing of the others, probably asking for a password and an explanation, then turned as an older man with greying hair ran out. Nomad smiled and embraced him.

"I had to be sure it was really her, sir." The first soldier said.

"Fine." The other man said. "Why haven't you come to see us sooner?" He asked Nomad "And what's all this?" He said, gesturing to the group of about fifteen that had come with her.

"Mostly new recruits, Nathan." She said. "The city is getting too dangerous for kids. I told them they could stay here. Mostly gang members and fugitives, so if they don't already know how to defend themselves, they'll learn." She explained, and gestured for Blaize to step forward. " This is Blaize, their leader."

"Glad to meet you, boy." Nathan said shaking Blaize's hand. "We owe most of our success here to Nomad, so a friend of hers is a friend of ours. Do you vouch for your group? It's imperative that Machines don't learn of our existence, so secrecy is a must." Blaize nodded, thinking that for a man who was so worried about secrecy, he talked a lot.

"Well then, a quick search and then you can come in. Nomad?"

"I've already searched them." She said. "All the weapons are in my bag, everyone else has been disarmed until you approve them." She'd deliberately done the search before reaching the barn, so that nothing strange about Henry could be discovered.

"All right then. We'll just let the dogs have a smell for terminators then." Nathan replied. Nomad hoped that Henry's structures had become human enough to pass the test. She held her breath when the dog came to him. It hesitated for only a moment, and then passed to the next person. He would have been difficult to explain.

Inside, the barn looked like any other, but through a trapdoor in the floor was an entire rebel base! There were a few families there as well, who worked the farms on the topside to maintain the concealment of the base, so there were kids for the DKL kids to talk to. Once introductions were made, Nomad felt she wanted to be on her own again, but she had to keep an eye on Henry, and Nathan wanted news about the Machines in the city, and any weaknesses she'd found out. When they were strong and prepared enough, Nathan was going to try to reclaim the city, destroy the machines, and force the Goblins to leave.

Nomad had let them have the farm, which she'd inherited, and occasionally helped them out, but she preferred to fight Machines in her own way. She'd learnt what she needed to survive from Nathan and the rebels, then left. She'd become a strong and skilled fighter, a clever and resourceful tactician, and a brilliant hacker, surpassing all of her tutors. She'd been good with chemistry too, and before she left she'd made a stockpile of explosive devises for the rebel's use. She'd have made an excellent soldier if she'd stayed, but she lived up to her name, moving from place to place, doing whatever damage she could to the Machines and gathering information before moving on.

Nomad felt strangely comfortable with Henry. Having been a terminator he didn't feel the need for conversation, so they were happy to work on any task for the rebels in silence. Even when they were alone they made no mention of anything suspicious. Her distrust of him had weakened considerably, though she still felt, just to be on the safe side, that she should keep an eye on him. Even Blaize had started to accept him, though he kept trying to talk to Nomad alone.

That night, after arriving at the base, Nomad caught Becca hanging around outside the room she was working in, trying to catch some of the conversation. Nomad could understand her suspicions, but was getting tired of it. She could tell that most of Becca's suspicion was based on jealousy. It had taken a small amount of time for Blaize to trust Nomad, compared to how long it usually took for a new member to be accepted, and Becca assumed he just liked her. It was obvious to Nomad that Becca liked him.

Nomad had listened to some of Becca's grumbling on the journey, and thought her spoiled and useless. There was going to be a war soon, and all Becca did was complain about stupid things.

"What are you up to now?" She said.

"I could ask you the same thing." Becca said evasively.

"Look whatever problem you have with me, I don't care. You'll be going back to the city with Blaize and Grunge tomorrow anyway, deal with whatever it is until then, when you won't be my problem." Nomad said.

"You thought this is about Blaize? That's funny." Becca sneered.

"I didn't say that. What do you want this problem to be about?" Nomad asked.

Becca looked at her contemptuously for a moment then replied, "You'll see."

Nomad wasn't intimidated, and remained expressionless as Becca walked off. She fleetingly hoped Blaize wasn't stupid enough to fall for Becca, and then returned to her work.

5: Death in the dark

Grunge was sitting with Nathan at a computer console, demonstrating his skills as a hacker. It was nighttime, and only a few sentries were still up, and to save power, only a few consoles were still operating.

Nathan was impressed with the boy. "Are you sure you don't want to stay here with us? We're always looking for new recruits." He said, remembering the loss of Nomad.

Grunge grinned and shook his head. He was loyal to Blaize, wherever he went, Grunge followed. He decided to check radio signals that were commonly used by Patrollers and terminators, the way he usually learned about contracts. "That's strange." He said.

"What?" Nathan asked.

"Have you sent any signals to other bases today?" Grunge asked.

"No, why?"

"There's a message that was sent from this location recently, if you hold on a moment, I'll find out what was sent." Grunge said, concentrating.

A moment later he stepped back in alarm, knocking over his chair, "There's a terminator here, and the base is going to be attacked!" he gasped.

Nathan looked at the screen, and was about to run and set off the alarm when he was stabbed in the throat by an unseen attacker.

Grunge whirled around and was picked up by his throat and thrown backwards, crashing into the computer as he fell. "You!" he whispered from the ground, his eyes widening in recognition, then gasped in pain as he was stabbed in the chest and left to bleed to death.

"New rule." The terminator smiled. "Innocents may be terminated when engaged in rebellion."

Others had been awakened by the crash. Blaize was the first on the scene, and knelt by his friend.

"Grunge?" he whispered. "What happened?" he tried to stop the bleeding with his shirt.

"Terminator." Grunge whispered. A soldier knelt by Nathan, and then rose shaking his head. Their leader had died quickly. Another soldier had heard Grunge, and raced off to alert the rest of the base.

"Get Nomad here now." Blaize said to one of the DKL's, who raced off to do so, but stopped when he saw Nomad already racing in the direction of the noise.

"What happened?" she asked, grief and surprise evident on her face, kneeling between Nathan and Grunge.

"We were betrayed." Blaize said stonily, looking at her accusingly. "Where's Henry?"

"He was just with me," she said. "He couldn't have done this."

"It was Becca." Grunge whispered, and died as the alarms went off.

"What are you doing here?" Becca asked Henry. "You were not assigned to this group. I was."

"What do you mean?" Henry asked, confused.

" You are a terminator assigned to the city, then you disappeared from it." She said. Realisation dawned on Henry, that she was also a terminator. "You'd have known the rest of us were looking for you if you'd kept your modem, but you obviously didn't want us to track you. What are you hiding?" she demanded.

"Damaged modem." He stalled. "What is your mission, and how can I assist you?" he asked.

"You can do nothing to help now until the others get here." Becca said, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "But you could always prove your loyalty by destroying our little spy here." She said while turning, reaching around a corridor and grabbing Mouse, who was hiding there.

"Becca, let me go!" she cried.

"Kill her." Becca commanded Henry. "You're about to join your brother." She said cruelly to Mouse.

Henry hesitated for a second, and then reached out for Mouse. She screamed as the alarms sounded. Becca let go in satisfaction, and then grew angry as Henry shoved Mouse out of the way and started striking the other terminator. "Warn the others." He yelled to Mouse, who ran down the corridor. After a short battle where he quickly overpowered the weaker terminator, he grabbed her jaw and twisted it around, dislodging the wires to her main circuitry (her brain), disabling her.

Then the first blast hit the building, and the battle outside began.

For the first time in a long while, Nomad was at a loss for what to do. She was torn between defending the base and its occupants, or finding Nathan and Grunge's killer. She'd realised how Becca had gotten past the dogs. The girl had lagged so far behind that she was absent at the check, but joined the group as they went inside.

Nomad grabbed Nathan's key chain from around his neck and ran to a weapons cabinet, distributing guns to anyone who could use them. Then, hearing the yells above ground, she went to defend the base, briefly glancing back in sympathy at Blaize. If she found Becca on the way, she'd tear her apart for what she did, she was so furious.

Blaize took a little longer to leave his friend, but he got up when he heard Mouse's yells. He ran to intercept her before she could see her brother. His leadership instincts returned as he took her arm and led her to the safe room, a barricaded room for children and invalids in emergencies. He gathered up any other members of the DKL's as he went, ensuring their safety, as he always had done.

It seemed as though the Machines had sent every terminator to destroy the rebels, there were at least a hundred, as well as about fifty Patrollers, newly fitted with guns. The fit and able rebels at the base numbered only a hundred, and so, compared to the stronger terminators, things looked bad. Only a few of the terminators wore human appearance, the rest were menacing with their metallic skeletons. If any of the terminators got past the fighters and inside, the base's main operations and children would be at risk.

The barn was the only place from which the fighters had cover to fire from, but it was fairly useless against the bullets of the machines. Still, Nomad fought, racking her brain for ideas as she fired upon the approaching machines. The base had never really been prepared for this kind of attack. Some shots were directed at her, and she ducked behind the wall, but the bullets still punched through the wood, and one hit her in the lower back, just to the right of her spine. She was hurt, but not disabled, as the wood had at least slowed the bullet. Ducking low, she headed back for the trapdoor, crawling along the ground to avoid further shots. Looking at the dirt under her hands she got an idea. She lifted the trapdoor and slid down the ladder, ending up in the arms of Blaize, who'd been about to join the fight. He dropped his gun, surprised as she fell against him, and then looked in shock at the blood on his hands.

"I'm fine." She said roughly, though obviously in pain. Henry found and joined them, telling them of Becca's termination. Nomad quickly detailed her plan. "We only have, at most, a few minutes left before they'll breach the base." She said. "Get moving."

Blaize went up above ground and warned the fighters of what was to come. At a glance he saw a few terminators and patrollers struggling to get up off the ground, but a majority, though being beaten back by the hails of bullets, were still making their way forward. Another hundred meters and the first would be at the barn's doors. Nomad appeared at the trapdoor, climbed out and then turned and grabbed a sack pushed up by Henry. She then distributed the bombs inside it to Blaize, Henry and any soldier who'd run out of ammo, who then proceeded to bury them in scattered positions within the barn.

"Retreat!" she yelled over the gunfire, firing her own gun in the air to get the remaining soldiers' attentions. "Retreat!" She screamed the word repeatedly. Blaize pulled her back underground, and the soldiers ran for the trapdoor. Henry pulled two that were still alive but unable to walk along with him, then, as he was the last, bolted and barricaded the trapdoor behind him. As he ran down the corridors behind the other soldiers, his specialised hearing picked up the sound of the first terminators crashing through the barricaded barn doors.

They had to wait a few moments so that they could be sure every terminator and patroller was within blast radius, then Henry gave Nomad the signal, and she remote-detonated the bombs.

The walls shook with the force of the blast, and everyone ducked and covered, lest ceiling panels be shaken loose and fall on them. Henry blocked one such panel away from Blaize. The children remained safe, as the walls of the emergency room were reinforced with steel.

When the noise and shaking subsided, everyone stood. Henry looked down and saw the blood on Blaize's hands, and attempted to examine them for gashes. "It's not mine." Blaize said. "I was hardly involved in the fighting." He said it almost bitterly. "It's Nomad's blood."

"Is she alright?" Henry asked.

"She said she was, but I'm going to see her now." Blaize said, heading for the back of the group, as some soldiers pushed past in the opposite direction to finish off whatever machines remained. Henry followed. Both men were just in time to catch her as she finally succumbed to blood loss.

6: Not Over Yet

Thanks to Henry's detailed knowledge of human anatomy, Nomad was soon fit to be walking around again. No patrollers had been left to spread the word of the machines' defeat, so she had some time to contemplate the rebels' next move. It wasn't that things had been left up to her; it's just that with the celebrating – it was the most terminators destroyed at one time ever – no one else was thinking about what should happen next.

'Eventually they'll figure it out, that we're still alive.' She thought to herself. 'It would be better if we struck first. But how? We have limited manpower, limited firepower, and I don't think that just attacking the machines would do anything but get men killed.'

She touched her wound while thinking. It was raw, but otherwise not painful. She thought of Henry, a terminator that had changed so much. A machine, which was helping humans fight against his creators. A former killer, that was currently creating life, and was helping to preserve the lives of humans. She went to go talk to him. Since it had been learned that he was a terminator, he had been kept under watch, but as he had helped in the defence of the base none of the soldiers were hostile towards him. They assumed he had been reprogrammed, and Nomad couldn't be bothered explaining the truth to all of them. Besides, the child basically had reprogrammed him, but no one knew about the child.

"Henry?" She asked. "How many terminators do you think were in the attack?"

"Ninety percent of those on this continent." He replied. Nomad was surprised. The machines really had sent almost all of them.

"So the machine base would be weakened right now?" she pressed, beginning to get another plan.

"Yes, but our side sustained losses also." Henry said. "Even with the base weakened, we do not have the manpower to take out the machine's main computer." Henry had known what Nomad was getting at. "We probably wouldn't even get close, they still have defences other than terminators."

"I know, but if we had the manpower, do you know how to get to the main computer? You know, the right directions and codes to get past the doors?"

"Yes. But we'd need to do it soon, before the machines realise that they lost, and start importing more terminators from the Goblin's planet."

"OK. I need to go talk to the second in command, but I think I know how to strike at the machines."

"If we don't strike back now, when we have a chance of winning, then we just accept that we will always be ruled over by the machines." Nomad said to the group of men with the most rank in the base. "They will send more machines after us, until none of us are left alive." She said. "We have to strike at them first. If we finish them now, the Goblins won't have an alliance with anyone and they'll have to leave. No more terminators, no more patrollers, no more slavery."

"Who'll make the diversion." One of them asked.

"Tell me what to do and I'll do it." Blaize said bravely.

"It's alright, Blaize," said Nomad. "I have the perfect man for the perfect diversion." She turned back to the rest of the group. " I'll contact him if you give the go ahead. Henry knows the way to the main computer, we'll destroy it. All I need from you is the manpower and firepower to back us up."

"I agree that now is the time." Said one of them. "But I don't think we have either the manpower or the firepower."

"Call the other bases." Nomad said. "Tell them about our recent victory and I'm sure they'll jump at the chance to finish the machines once and for all."

"We haven't had contact with them for a while, and they were used to getting news from Nathan, they may not trust the rest of us."

"Where do you think I travel to all the time?" Nomad asked. "I'll call them.

The leaders spoke among themselves. Then one stood up and nodded to Nomad in agreement.

Nomad's diversion was going to be an electrician who was a friend of hers and owed her some favours. She told him to remote program a van, which she filled with volatile explosives. As the backup from other bases arrived, she gave him the go ahead to send it on its way to a munitions factory of the machines. Henry showed them a discreet entrance to the underground Machine base, where Nomad's team would wait until Machine units had been drawn away to the destruction of the factory. She'd timed it well, as they didn't have long to wait until the remaining Patrollers and terminators were drawn away, that munitions factory was a great asset to them.

The reason they still required backup was because there were many built in defences of the machine base, that had to be destroyed as they went or else the group would have been shot to pieces, and not even gotten past the first door. Also, there needed to be soldiers at the munitions factory so that the terminators wouldn't come back early.

At the doors, Henry would locate the electrical unit, where either he would type in the password, or Nomad could rewire them to let them through when they came to a door that Henry hadn't been given access to. Henry guided them through the Labyrinth of tunnels, always pointing out where a gun or shield would be positioned before the team got to them, so that they could be quickly taken out.

Deep underground, the Machine's main computer was housed. From there, it transmitted all of its orders to the machines and Goblins, and made orders to the Goblin planet.

So far, thanks to Henry's guidance, Nomad hadn't lost any of her team. They were already deep underground, near the heart of the Machine base. One level below them was the Machine's supercomputer. It was a car-sized ball of metal, wires and moving parts, suspended by hundreds of wires and beams in huge spherical room. There were maintenance droids, about the size of basketballs crawling all over it, ensuring that it continued to be operational. They had screwdrivers and spanners etc, to work on whatever problems arose. Every twenty seconds or so they would plug into the ball to get their next orders, as it was a waste of power to give them modems. One of the team had to get close to it, without dislodging the beams, or they would fall to their deaths. They had to be light, as the beams were designed only to support wires and the ball, not human weight. They also had to be quick, for as soon as the droids sensed human presence in the room, they'd tell the computer, and an alarm would sound, and the remaining terminators would be sent for. The droids themselves were also dangerous; they carried lethal toxins, which could be jabbed into human skin.

The last part of the plan was for the person to descend from the ceiling panel, get close to the ball, while the soldiers above would shoot off any droids before that got close enough to notice the person, they only had short range sensors. The person would then need to undo panels on the computer, plant one of Nomad's bombs, then quickly get out of there. At that point they probably would have been noticed, but as long as the team got to a safe enough distance and detonated the bomb before terminators reached the base, they wouldn't get their orders. They would still be dangerous, but their modems would be useless, and they'd only be able to act independently, and not be able to coordinate their efforts, and would have no access to munitions.

Henry located the door connecting their level to the Main room. Nomad, being the lightest put herself in a harness for safety, which Henry, the strongest, would hold onto a line on the other end in case she slipped. If that happened, she'd surely be noticed, and there wouldn't be enough time to pull her up and get her back on a beam to finish her job. Blaize, the second lightest, was the backup. She took as deep breath and lowered herself into the room, then reached out with her legs to pull herself towards a beam. She slid down, keeping as much of her weight on the line as possible, trying to only use the beam to guide her toward the ball.

She landed on the ball without too much difficulty, kicking a droid off it before it could plug in and alert the Machines. She took a screwdriver from her belt and loosened a panel; she jumped a little when she heard a shot behind her, knocking off a droid that was getting too close. Luckily, droids had no reason to hear, so the others remained oblivious to her presence. So far so good, she moved some wires aside to nestle a bomb amongst them, she tried to plunge her hand deep inside the ball, so that the blast would have the maximum effect, but she felt something move against her fingers. She jerked her arm up, narrowly avoiding the lethal jab of droid who was working on the computer internally. At the same time, another droid was shot off the ball. Nomad lost her balance and fell off the ball, bracing herself as the momentum of her swing slammed her into the wall.

Like a flash, Blaize was down through the trapdoor and lowered himself to the ball. He used the screwdriver that Nomad had dropped to stab the droid's connector wire as it was plugging into the computer. He then armed the bomb, and swung towards Nomad, so that Henry could pull them both up at once to save time. Nomad was sore, but all right. Henry pulled them up, and the team retreated, getting themselves a safe distance from the blast radius. The bomb had to be set off quickly so that the droids wouldn't dislodge it, so the team was only one level up when the blast occurred. They braced themselves as the lights went out, and the alarms only sounded for a moment.

The main computer was dead. There could have only been about ten to twenty terminators left, less if some were taken out at the munitions factory, and now they had no one to report to, no cause to fight for. The humans had won. Without their allies, hopefully the Goblins would retreat, and leave the humans in peace.


	2. Chapter 2

Fathernator

Continuation of the story, just as my dream continued when I went back to sleep.

Part Two

1: Uncertainty

Nomad had won her battle, but little did she know that the war was far from over. The Goblins had fled, but they could return, stronger than ever. Who knew what new advancements they were devising, right at that moment?

For now however, she had time to think. Her accomplishments had shown her to be a leader, and with Nathan's death, some of the rebels were turning to her for guidance, despite her age.

She was sitting above ground, leaning against the remains of the barn, back at the old base. She could hear birds singing, a rare occurrence during the resistance, even out in the country, but they were singing now. Maybe they could tell that the humans had won a great battle against their oppressors.

'After being on my own for so long,' Nomad was thinking, 'it's strange to be depended on by others.' She was coping, just as Blaize always had with the DKL's. His gang had broken up, as they now had a place with the rebels, and Blaize's place as leader had disappeared. It was as though Blaize and Nomad's roles had reversed.

She hadn't seen much of him since the last battle. She'd been fairly busy, and he'd been making his own explorations of the new base above the old Machine complex. Not many people went underground to the old Machine complex, as it hadn't yet been explored and might still be dangerous, aside from the fact that the Machines had made it a labyrinth.

After a few days at the new base, Nomad had left, seeking that familiar solitude she'd been longing for. She'd come back to the place she'd spent the most time at while growing up, to get away from it all, to comprehend the turn in her life.

She was distracted from her musings by the sounds of footsteps on the gravel path leading to the barn. She looked around the wooden wall she was leaning against, and saw Henry and Mouse.

Since Henry had saved her life, Mouse stayed close to him. She considered him her protector. Henry didn't mind. He'd called it practice; His pregnancy only had a few months to go. That concept required an entire day's thought on it's own! Mouse had no family left now. She seemed to be coping fairly well with Grunge's death, but Henry had told Nomad that sometimes he heard the girl crying at night.

"What are you doing here?" Nomad asked.

"I came to see you, to thank you for your support against the rebels." Henry explained. "And also to see how you are doing."

"Fine. It's been challenging, but I'm coping. I'd hate to be caught off guard, but I think maybe we've done it. Maybe we've freed ourselves. I still want to be prepared though, just in case the Goblins manage to retaliate. You look like you've got something else on your mind."

"I've been checking my old modem." Henry said. "I'm going to lead a team to investigate some strange signals I picked up. Hopefully I'll find out something that will help you."

"What about Mouse?" Nomad asked.

"He wants me to stay with you." Mouse interrupted, tired of being quiet.

"Just as a precaution." Henry said. "No children. It may still be dangerous below the machine base."

"All right." Nomad said. "Just be careful. Mouse isn't the only child you have to worry about." She said, meaning the baby. Henry nodded.

Deep beneath the Machine's former city, Henry's team tracked the signal. Despite Henry's contribution to the war, there were only a few men willing to trust this terminator to lead, so his group was small.

Most of the electricity was shut down there, to ensure no machine defence systems were operational. Henry's terminator strength came in handy; opening jammed steel doors. They found that the source of the signal came from a strange machine with two doors and many flashing lights.

Henry saw something move on the other side and stepped through to investigate. Just as the Goblin scientist hit a switch, Henry disappeared in a flash of blinding white light.

One of the soldiers shot at the Goblin, and hit the machine, though the Goblin was also killed in the blast. A surge went through the machine, the lights flashed, smoke started spewing from it, and Henry reappeared. The machine shut down, it's circuits ruined. Henry looked shocked to be back. He asked the soldiers what date it was, and looked grim when he heard the answer.

"I have to talk to Nomad." He said. He wouldn't say any more, and he didn't listen to any protests as he led the soldiers back out. He looked like a man on a mission. One of the soldiers observed that Henry no longer had a bulge in his stomach. 'Man, that is a weird machine.' He thought, referring to the half terminator.

2: Revelations

"Ma'am?" A soldier asked Nomad, who was in her new office.

"Yes." Nomad answered.

"Reports from the machine city show that some of the people that lived nearby have disappeared."

"How long ago?"

"The first lot went missing almost immediately after the final mission against the machines, but another group of about six has gone missing since. Evidence of spacecraft fuel was found at the spot the people were last seen."

"Goblins?"

"We believe so. They probably took more prisoners to work their machines. There is another thing."

"What?"

"Blaize is among the missing."

Nomad was silent. She'd been hoping to reconcile with him. Apart from during the last mission he'd hardly said a word to her. She'd grown to like him, and she had suspected he'd liked her. But since Grunge's death she felt that he thought her responsible, even though they both knew it wasn't so. She was determined that he and the others be found.

"Is there a team still there?" Nomad asked, her voice steady.

"Yes."

"Make sure they keep investigating. When we have enough men free we're going to do another exploration of the Machine base, and see what we can find. If the Goblins have taken them back to their home planet, I'm afraid there's little hope of getting them back. Hopefully they'll leave the rest of us alone."

"Yes ma'am."

The soldier left the room as Henry entered it. Nomad swallowed back the unexpected tears for Blaize, and steadied herself.

Henry looked grave, and did not sit down as she asked him to do. "I have rather alarming news." He said.

"Is something else wrong?" Nomad said wearily, dispirited.

"Nothing's wrong, it's just rather strange." Henry reassured her.

"What did you find?"

"A time machine."

"Wh-what?"

"The Goblins were working on it at the time of our last attack. Believe me, I've seen it's effects with my own eyes. I believe it was only put to use once."

"Where did they go back to?"

"They didn't. I did. I was accidentally sent back to eighteen years ago. Then a surge went through the machine and it brought me back after a few months there, to a few seconds after I'd left. It was destroyed when the scientist working it was shot."

"A few months?" Nomad had gone a little pale with all the stress of Blaize's disappearance and this talk of time travel.

"That isn't the most alarming news."

"No?"

"I had my daughter." He lifted his shirt to reveal his now flat stomach. "I only got to raise her for a few months before I was pulled back to today, leaving her behind."

"Then, then she'd be around today, grown up, wouldn't she?" he nodded "We'll help you find her, but there is a lot to be done right now. Another issue has come up."

"I have found her."

"Who is she? Where is she? I… I'd like to meet her."

"It's you."

Nomad gaped. "Wh-what? But, I…"

"I knew her blood, as she came from me. I recognised it from the same blood that came from you when you were injured at the old rebel base. The DNA is identical. You are the daughter I carried. You even wanted to protect your younger self, remember, when you let me help you travel to the rebel base, though you didn't know it was you. Eighteen years ago I travelled to the barn, figuring you'd be safe there. I asked the help of a kind old couple, who I assumed would be your future parents, as you said you'd grown up there. I was so surprised when at two months old you accidentally got a cut; I touched the blood while cleaning it and immediately knew whose DNA you had. I realised that I had been meant to find the machine, so that you could be in the right time to lead the rebels to victory."

This was a lot to take in. After so many years, she had family. Not just a father, but he was sort of her mother as well. If he had been a terminator that had turned more human in order to carry her, what exactly was she? Henry had always been a mystery; after all, he'd been a pregnant terminator. She was the daughter of something that used to be a machine! A machine that had travelled through time to give birth to her!

"What am I?" she whispered, partly to herself.

"Special. From the DNA, you are mostly human, but I should have picked up earlier that you had some abnormal, mutated DNA, resembling binary code. I analysed it when I realised you were my daughter, and you definitely will express some strange traits."

"Like what?" Nomad was a little afraid.

"At first I thought you might grow a metal exoskeleton, but the DNA only suggests hardening of the bones, not metal growth. You will be able to grow much stronger and more agile."

"Why haven't I yet?"

"You've got certain hormones acting to delay the reaction. I can tell you that it will be soon though. I gauged that the hormones would only last until late adolescence."

"I'm going to be superhuman or something?"

"I believe so."

"Wow." She said nothing for a moment. She looked up at Henry, who looked fairly calm, though expectant.

"I know you want to take this all in, but you said there was an important issue…" he prompted.

"Blaize is gone." Nomad said, coming back to earth. "He and some other humans have gone missing, they may have been taken by Goblins."

"But we should still try to find him." Henry said.

"We will."

3: A New Man

Nomad personally led the team down to the machine base. Her father accompanied her, along with some soldier volunteers. Mouse was left back at the base with one of the families, though she wasn't happy about it.

All was quiet on the surface, not a creature stirred. They entered through the northern gate, and split into three groups. One would skirt the city's borders from the left, Henry would lead another group to the right, and Nomad would take her group right down the centre, and hope to come across clues of the missing people's whereabouts.

They had the feeling of being watched, but they did not see the figure, silently spying on them from a watchtower. They progressed through the city, and the figure followed, jumping from an impossible height to land on the ground, unscathed, to follow the group that went to the left. Another figure also jumped from the tower, to follow Henry's group.

A few minutes later, Henry looked back to find that his rearguard had disappeared. He backtracked until he came across the body, eyes wide in shock, the head twisted at an impossible angle. Henry raced back to his group and sent up a warning flare, He was just in time to see one of his men dragged around a corner, and was quick enough to see something jump away from him when he ran to help. The man was scared and injured, but alive. Henry helped him up and supported him. The leaderless group had already lost two men, and the remaining ones raced back to meet Nomad and Henry's groups at the site of the flare.

Once together, they aborted the mission; they were not ready or equipped to handle whatever predator was preying on them. They took the quickest route possible out of the city, and as Nomad was at the rear, no one noticed when she was pulled through a trap door with it bolted behind her.

She kicked out at whatever had hold of her leg, and switched on her torch, trying to catch a glimpse of her attacker. There was no point shooting at something she couldn't see, because there was a risk of gas pipes. For a moment the figure avoided the flashlight, and then decided to her see him. Nomad gasped at the man who stood before her.

"Blaize?" He had metal covering part of his face, and was wearing a terminator's uniform, but it was definitely him. What had the Goblins done to him?

"Surprised?" He sneered, in a sadistic tone of voice that was unfamiliar to Nomad. He approached her and she lashed out, grazing her knuckles against his _very hard_ face. He laughed at her, and grabbed her wrist when she tried to hit him again.

"What are you?" she asked, feeling betrayed.

"Don't you trust me anymore? Hmm, and I thought you liked me." He said, clearly not caring whether she did or not anymore. To creep her out further, he lifted her slightly bloody knuckles to his lips and licked them, enjoying the look of horror on her face.

Then his smug expression changed into one of shock, as his internal computer analysed the blood. "What are you?" he demanded, echoing her question. "We were not notified that you had been made one of us, why do you have terminator traits?"

"We?" Nomad asked.

Blaize sneered, and released her hand. "Nomad, allow me to introduce an old friend."

Another figure approached from behind Blaize and stepped into the torchlight. "Why haven't you killed this bitch yet?" A repaired and upgraded Becca asked.

"Taste this." Blaize told, her putting his finger to his lips and offering it to Becca. Her eyes widened.

"She is not human, but she's not one of us." Becca said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "The Goblins will want to analyse her." She said, and Blaize stepped towards her menacingly.

Nomad kicked out, hitting him in the chest and knocking him back into Becca, and at the same time the trapdoor was wrenched open and a hand was thrust through the opening. Nomad jumped for it and was pulled through be Henry, who'd come back for her when he realised she was missing. They bolted the trapdoor from the outside and ran for it while the two inside pounded against it. It didn't escape Nomad's notice that she was running faster than she ever had before.

4: Improvements

Nomad was pissed, upset, confused and distraught, all at once. She jumped up and kicked the boxing bag, completely snapping it off the chain holding it to the ceiling. She imagined that she'd hit Becca, and smashed her face in. Henry had just walked in, and noticed the three other bags that lay on the far side of the training room, their chains also broken.

"I take it you've gotten stronger?" he asked. Nomad didn't answer; she didn't trust herself not to start swearing out of frustration.

Henry stood beside her, while she stood still, trying to control her emotions.

"Normal terminators aren't good enough any more." He said, almost conversationally. "They've been upgrading both original terminators like Becca and experimenting on how to make humans into stronger soldiers."

"Then whatever they did to Blaize, I'll rip it out of him and shove it down the Goblins' throats." Nomad said bloodthirstily. Henry didn't comment.

"I'm going to kick Becca's face in, after I've pulled her arms off and beaten her to pieces with them." Nomad continued in a gruff, violent voice, while punching another boxing bag. Her punches slowed down after a moment, and she sunk to the floor. "I let them get him, and now he's gone." She said quietly, but with his non-human hearing, Henry had heard what she said.

"It's not your fault." He said, going towards her and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "At least he's still alive."

"That _thing_ was not Blaize. He's dead, and a machine has his body now. If I let myself think it's him, I won't be able to do what I have to." Nomad said resolutely. " I won't be able to terminate the thing that wears his face."

"Terminate?"

"Well, I am a terminator, or at least partly one. Maybe I'm the upgrade they were working on that got away. Whatever the reason for my existence, I will make the Goblins regret ever crossing paths with me. I'm this strong and fast already, and I have a feeling I've only just begun to improve."

Nomad quickly found another interesting improvement to her abilities. She had sufficiently de-stressed herself in the training room, and was repairing some old equipment. Among it was Henry's old modem. Nomad was trying to adjust it to pick up the Goblin frequencies, as the Machines no longer existed. Of course, it needed to be hooked into a machine for it to emit anything resembling a message, but Nomad thought that a radio would do just as well. She had exposed a wire in the modem so that she could make a connection between the two devices, and her finger grazed the unprotected strands of metal. She immediately heard code in her mind, and a second later her brain decoded it and she could understand it. She learned some very interesting information, and decided to take action.

5: Unplanned Action

The Goblins made another raid on a couple of farms, and that ship headed back to their home planet.

Nomad made sure that she was among the captured. She had gone alone, but she'd left a note for Henry and the rebels. She had enough faith in her newfound abilities to believe she could handle whatever the Goblins would throw at her. She had to stop them from kidnapping people, and, if she could, she would bring home those who had already been made slaves. She knew how to pilot a ship, and she was an expert in espionage, infiltration and, as Nathan had once laughed, 'making the shit hit the fan for the enemy'. If she waited, there would be too many humans made into Cyborgs for her to handle. Right now, she was humanity's best hope for freedom and victory, and she knew it.

She'd gone along quietly, and had not been searched, which was fortunate, as she had several concealed weapons, along with a computer with an updated modem and a lock-picking kit, in case she wasn't strong enough to break the shackles they put on her.

The journey didn't take much longer than an hour. The humans were herded into an enclosure to await assignment: slavery, or reprogramming for their cyborg experiments.

Nomad discreetly unlocked the shackles, but left them on so that she'd look as though she were being restrained. The room they was locked from the outside. She had to wait until the Goblins came to get one of them. She was going to make sure that none of those who did survived, so that the humans she was with would be safe until she could secure transport to get them out of there, the Goblin city would not be alerted.

"Does anyone else here know how to pilot a ship?" she asked the dejected prisoners. One of the men who'd fought back during the capture looked up.

"Yeah. What good is that going to do us. We're stuck here, we've lost."

"Keep quiet and wait. I'm going to need your help soon. When they come to get us, everybody's got to just act depressed and docile, ok? Shouldn't be too hard, considering our futures if I fail." Nomad shifted a little, feeling a bit antsy with all of this waiting when there were important things to do.

"If you fail what?" The guy asked suspiciously.

"Just wait and see." If Nomad told them the plan, they might somehow give it away if they didn't act normally. And also, there had been traitors in the past, those who would sell-out their fellow humans for a chance to gain favour and privilege with the Machines and Goblins.

She didn't have to wait too long for the goblins to come and get their first victim for reprogramming and upgrading. They locked the door behind them, which was a waste of time. It would be a simple matter for anyone to get the keys if they took out the one holding them. There were three of them, odds that Nomad liked. Another piece of luck, two walked towards a person next to Nomad. They put a chain around the man's neck before going for the shackles. Nomad waited until they had just unlocked the person's shackles and turned to lead him away.

She slipped her wrists from her shackles, grabbed two daggers from a concealed pouch on her back under her jacket and stepped forward to snake her hands around the Goblins' throats to slit them. Before the one at the door could cry out an alarm, she threw one of her daggers to lodge itself between the Goblin's eyes. He slid to the floor as Nomad cautioned the others to be quiet.

She retrieved the keys and her daggers, and unlocked the collar on the poor frightened man, and then went over to the pilot.

"What's your name?" She asked as she unlocked his restraints.

"Ben. Why didn't they search you? Why did you let yourself be caught?"

Nomad moved to the next person. "They didn't search me because a) I didn't fight back, b) I'm just a helpless little girl and c) I hid my weapons well and didn't make it obvious that I had them. I want you guys to stay here for a few minutes until I'm ready to get you to a ship. Then I want you, Ben, to take them back home." She handed the keys to him and took out her laptop, while he freed the others.

"If you could get out of the restraints, why didn't you hijack the ship when you were on it?" a woman asked.

"Because I'm not just trying to save you guys. The only way I was going to get to this planet in order to do some damage was in the Goblins' custody." Nomad used a screwdriver to pry loose a wall panel where she suspected there would be… yes, computer cables.

She hooked up the laptop to it and hacked into the Goblin network. She looked up building schematics and the images for the motion detectors. In minutes she knew exactly where she was going, and where to send the others.

She recorded some images from the cameras and made sure that nothing moved in the footage she had. She then sent that footage back into the network so that it would repeat and not show the Goblins their activities. Her laptop was now the only computer that really saw what the cameras where seeing.

She put the laptop in with the wires and replaced the panel. She then turned on the modem in her pack, linking to the computer. Through a hole in her pack and jacket, some wires from the modem had been taped to her skin. In her mind she could now see exactly what was going on in front of the cameras.

"You're staying here, alone?" Ben asked incredulously.

"Don't underestimate me, that's supposed to become the Goblins' mistake. I've been trained to fight my entire life. I know what I'm doing, and thanks to my computer, I know what the Goblins are doing."

"How will you know where they are if you left it in that panel?" The woman asked.

"Uh, earpiece." Nomad did not want to explain herself, especially since she didn't completely understand what she was or what she could do herself. "I've got someone at home, who's receiving the images via the modem on that computer. He's going to tell me when to go and where to go."

"So when do we go and where do we go?" Ben asked, having freed the last person.

"To the nearest aircraft hangar which is next door, in about eighty seconds. It's almost siesta time for the Goblins. Fewer guards. Most of the other slaves will be locked up, but left alone. I'll be able to free some more before you guys go."

"What about you?"

"I can fly a ship too. I've got some explosives and a gun. I'll do some damage, hopefully enough to at least make them think twice about stealing people from earth, grab as many prisoners as I can and make my way back home."

"What about the Goblins' computerised defences? Gun turrets, electronically locked doors, whatever else they've managed to create?"

"We avoid them, or I explode them with a grenade, once you're gone I'll make my way towards a main terminal and see if I can turn it on them."

"You think you can reprogram an alien defence system?" One of the others asked sceptically.

"Have ye a little faith. They said I couldn't reprogram a terminator, I've done it. I'm not supposed to be able to hack into their network either, but you've just seen me do that. Besides, you'll be long gone by the time I try. If I fail, it won't affect you. If I succeed, the war becomes a little easier. Now stay behind me, stay close, keep quiet, and if any of you betrays me I _will_ shoot you and leave you to die. The Goblins won't try to save you. I am trying to save you, however, so you'd better listen to what I tell you to do."

Nomad slowly unlocked the door, making as little noise as possible as she pulled it open. It was strange to see herself in her mind from the image on the camera that was on the ceiling of the room she stepped into. It was a laboratory, and it was deserted. She walked to an oven-like machine and placed a bomb in it, turning the heat on very low. She opened a door where more slaves were being held and quickly freed them, giving them a similar speech that she'd given the others. They followed her meekly as she led them out of the lab and into the aircraft hangar.

She made them wait just outside, as she snuck around the aircraft, silently and swiftly killing any Goblin pilots she came across with her daggers. When the area was free of enemies, she called in the others.

"Go, go, go!" she whispered as she directed them into a craft that was fast and large enough to fit them all in. "Don't stop until you get back to earth." She cautioned.

"Be careful." Ben told her as he closed the door.

Nomad then made her way to the hangar's main terminal, and opened the doors for Ben. She saw a hand wave at her through the windshield as they rose into the atmosphere. Nomad hoped no one would realise that the ship leaving the planet wasn't meant to be.

6: The New Bitch in Town

With the schematics in mind, she slipped from building to building down the empty streets towards the Goblins base of defence. She had about twenty minutes before the end of siesta, and fifteen minutes before the bomb went off, taking out the lab.

When the building was in sight, she pulled up it's defence system. From here, she couldn't reprogram it, but she could figure out what she had to avoid until she could get to the source in its lowest basement. Her best bet was the ventilation ducts, which she could just fit both her and her pack in. After exposing enough wires to do the same trick with the motion detectors in this building with a spare modem, this time not having to use her laptop as she had no witnesses, she followed her internal map downwards.

She still had two levels to go when the duct stopped, opening out into a room full of terminators and Cyborgs, all of them seeming to be shut down, standing in rows. She had to go on foot the last two levels. She removed the panel as quietly as she could, and lowered herself to the floor. She crept past the machines, their eyes open but unseeing. There were no cameras in this room, so she would not be able to monitor their movements. At the door at the other end of the room she refrained from breathing a sigh of relief, in case their sound sensors were still activated. As quietly as she could, she closed the door behind her and went down the stairs.

The last room was guarded by a gun turret, and there was nothing Nomad could do but blow it up. She locked the door behind her, out of range of the gun for the moment. She attached a bomb to it, that would explode if the door were opened unless she deactivated it first. Hopefully the machines did not have their sound sensors activated, otherwise she would have to rely on the door to keep them out until she finished with the computer. She pulled out a grenade, removed the pin and threw it towards the gun, her accuracy surprising her as it landed directly in the barrel. It moved a little, trying to pinpoint where the movement had come from, before the grenade blew it to pieces.

Wasting no time, Nomad avoided the shrapnel and ran towards the other end of the room, watching herself on camera again as the motion detectors failed to alert the occupants of the building, though she was sure that the machines in the room above her were trying to find out where the noise had come from. Using her strength to wrench open the last trapdoor, she lowered herself into the room, before shooting the Goblin guard who was reaching for his communicator.

She couldn't block the trapdoor, so she moved quickly, knowing that once the machines tried to come downstairs, the door wouldn't hold them for long. At the terminal, she didn't bother with the keypads, she just ripped open the console and grabbed some wires. She braced herself, fighting off the virus and hacker protections that flew through her veins towards her mind. She had been ready for this, and was betting her life on having a stronger mind than the computer. She felt pain as her blood vessels seemed to burn with foreign computer code, but she remained still, determined to be resilient, and fought it back with her own code.

After what seemed like excruciating hours, the foreign code exhausted itself, and Nomad was given free run into the very heart of the Goblin's defences. She removed all programs that saw humans as a threat, and made it so any computerised doors would open on recognition of a human. She created a program that would recognise Goblins and terminators as enemies, and their own defences would fire on them and lock them out. For this program she put a time delay on it, so that the Goblins wouldn't realise what she'd done until she got away from the building. In her mind she saw that she only had a few minutes before the lab's bomb went off, and set the program to coincide with that distraction, hopefully creating some confusion and panic in which to escape in.

Then she had a brainwave. The terminators had modems, maybe she could make them work for her. She modified her defence programs to include only terminators and Cyborgs under Goblin control. She then worked on reaching the modems of the terminators. Any of those awake, she programmed to sleep, just as she heard the bomb go off on the door on the floor above.

"Come on." She whispered to herself. Any sleeping terminators had lowered defences, and soon got orders to shoot and kill all Goblins, and to get humans to the spacecraft to escape, and when they had a full load they were to pilot it back to earth. She woke them back up and hoped for the best. She allowed the programs to filter out into other machines connected to it. She then destroyed the terminal so that no one could undo her work without rebuilding it, and they had to get past terminators and reprogrammed defences to do so. The lab bomb would have gone off by now, but she was far enough not to have heard it.

She left another bomb in the defence room for luck, and ran for the trapdoor, knowing that if her programs didn't work then she was going to have to fight her way out. She wasn't afraid of one terminator, she knew she was stronger and faster and smarter, but there had been many in the room upstairs. She had no idea what kind of effect her program might have on Cyborgs.

She pulled herself into the guard room, noting the open door with a damaged terminator lying on the floor, but no operational terminators were in sight. It might have worked, they were probably off hunting Goblins!

In the motion sensors image she saw a flash of movement in the shadows behind her and reacted too slowly to avoid the kick in her back that caused her to fall forward to lay sprawled on the floor. She rolled over and flipped to her feet to face Blaize. She had thought he was still back on earth.

He kicked the trapdoor closed and gave her a calculating stare. Nomad wasn't going to run this time. For one thing, he'd have chased her down, and for another, she wanted to face him, to end the creature he'd become.

"Have you come to terminate me, Blaize?" she asked, showing no emotion, just like a terminator.

"Well, I had orders to bring you in for examination, but for some reason I'm not receiving any orders anymore, Your work?" he asked, trying to stare her down without success.

"Of course." She replied.

"And if I'm free from orders, I'm free to terminate you." He took a step towards her, but Nomad didn't even flinch.

"Not if you're terminated first." With that she went for her gun in her pack. Too quickly, Blaize reached her and knocked it out of her hands, causing it to break apart as it hit the wall with so much force. He tried to hit her face but she grabbed his arm and used it to ram him into the wall. She grabbed the back of his head and smacked it back into the wall before throwing him away from her.

She went to wipe the blood from her hands as he got back to his feet, but then, as he watched her, she raised a finger to her lips to echo what he had done to her back on earth. She quickly found out his weaknesses. He still had a heart, even if it was surrounded by wiring. He had all of his organs, and if she damaged them enough he would die just like any human. He hadn't been affected by the programming because he was still partly human, and retained some free will.

He jumped at her and she sidestepped his kick, instead kicking him in the back of the neck as he passed her. She had kicked hard enough to snap the wiring leading to his brain as he passed, and he collapsed to the floor. She went to walk past him to the door, but sentimentality stopped her. She looked back at him.

He was lying so that she couldn't see the side of his face with the metal. He looked almost sweet again, as though he were sleeping. She knelt by him to brush the hair from his face. She rolled him over and sat him up, leaning him against her as a tear escaped her lowered lids.

"Goodbye Blaize." She whispered, before gently kissing him on the lips. She felt something respond in his mind and in one split second she realised that he could be revived, and she wiped the Cyborg programming clean from his body. She introduced enough power to his brain to revive it from it's slumber, and the old Blaize opened his eyes.

"Nomad?" he asked. "Where are we? Why can't I move?"

"You're paralysed. Do you remember why?"

"I, I was trying to kill you. I don't feel the machine anymore, what did you do?" He looked innocent again, all sadism and cruelty gone from his expression.

"I freed you. And, as you are now partly machine, I can repair you. But not here, I've got to get you back home. I'll give you answers once we're safe, ok?" She wiped the blood off his face.

"But I can't walk." He said.

In answer, Nomad picked him up as though he weighed nothing, and put him over her shoulder. She left her gun where it was as it was useless. She froze when she saw a terminator walking around the room up the stairs, but it only glanced at her then ignored her, going back to it's task of hunting Goblins.

She knew there was no way she could get Blaize up through the ventilation, so she ordered the terminator to guide and guard her through the building to the outside. It obeyed, opening a door to lead her through the building.

The terminators were ignoring her, but she stayed out of sight as much as possible in case of more Cyborgs. So far they'd only made about twenty, but while she was carrying Blaize she didn't want to run into any of them.

In a different aircraft hanger, the terminator led her to a ship, as others filled with confused humans lifted off to head back to earth. She got in and lay Blaize down next to a frightened woman, asking her to watch him. She then made her way to the pilot. In a bizarre twist of fate, Becca sat at the console. Nomad immediately snapped her neck, and was about to dump her on the ground outside but decided to take her back to be taken apart and burned, ensuring that she could never be repaired again.

With her full ship, Nomad closed the doors and lifted off, to follow dozens of others back to earth.

The End


End file.
